Ten on Tuesday: Things to do instead of watching TV

The TV usually doesn't come on until David gets home. Every now & then, if I'm home in time for Jeopardy or Oprah, I'll tune in.  Here are 10 things you'll find me doing when the TV isn't on...
1. Surf the web! One link just leads to another, and I could waste hours on the computer...
2. Wash dishes, do laundry, general tidy-up (that's what I did yesterday...all day!)
3. Read
4. Do a crossword puzzle
5. Listen to a podcast. I have about a billion-quatrillion podcasts that I subscribe to.So if I'm doing dishes, cleaning, cooking, scrapbooking, running, or driving, it's usually to the sound of a podcast.
6. Plan a trip, a party, or a grocery list
7. Run (only time I do this while watching tv is at the gym!)
8. Knit (I'm usually doing this when the tv is on too)
9. Sew
10. Scrapbook (I DO still scrapbook, believe it or not! I was just working on a project this morning. If the tv's on, I'll digi scrap!)

Another attempt at a meme... Ten on Tuesday

Ten on Tuesday
Let's see how long I stick with this one...


Ten on Tuesday, July 13--Ten Things You Like About Where You Live

1. It's in England
2. There's ruins of a 12th century priory about a mile away
3. Dogs & ducks roam the neighborhood and enjoy walking right into my house
4. David lives here too
5. We meet our friends every Wednesday at the pub less than 3/4 mile down the road
6. There are hanging flower baskets in the town center
7. There's a nice path for running/walking along the river
8. There's a nice path for running/walking to Tesco
9. When I drive to base, I often get to drive past a whole bunch of sheep grazing in a field
10. Lots of interesting places to go for day or overnight trips & easy travel opportunities for longer trips too!

12 of 12, July: It's my Half-Birthday!!

The 12th of June was the first day of my trip to Ireland, so I didn't get to add my photos on time. You can see June's 12 of 12 here.

On the 12th of May, I was basking in the sun in Morocco... that 12 of 12 is here.

Everyone else's 12 of 12s for this month can be found here on Chad Darnell's blog.

And now, onto my July 12 of 12... (please consider visiting my links to my May &  June 12 of 12s so you don't think I'm a boring hermit!)

1. 1225, Craft Room, Thetford, UK

I'd already been up for hours, wishing myself a happy half-birthday and ordering a couple more birthday gifts for David, but totally forgot about 12 of 12! Luckily I saw Helen's fb status! Anyway, this is my CLEAN craft room! I cleaned it last weekend and I just love the way I can walk on the floor now!

2. 1230, Craft Room, Thetford, UK

One of the most exciting parts of cleaning my craft room was cutting my yarn down from 5 plastic bins to 2. It's unimportant that one of them is a gigantic 40-gallon tote.  Anyway, I decided to bag up the yarn so I'm more likely to find it in that big ol' container and also so it doesn't get quite so tangly. I worked on the last of the bagging (and adding to my ravelry stash!) today.

3. 1240, Craft Room, Thetford, UK

Needed to take a break from stashing and clean off the table. My little friend (she's 13 and at least a foot taller than me!) came over to work on some scrapbooking & cards today and we needed a place to work! So I didn't get around to making an apron from this cute tea towel I bought at Tesco the other day. I don't really know what tea towels are for, so I figured I might as well make myself an apron!

4. 1757, Bedroom, Thetford, UK

David was so excited to receive this package, he couldn't even part with it while he came upstairs to change out of his uniform. So, we opened it in the bedroom... a big box full of heaven! Coco's Curry straight from Okinawa!!! Yum, yum!

5. 1757, Bedroom, Thetford, UK

Then I made David look at the cards I made today. He was a little less excited about the cards than the curry, but he still told me that they were very nice!

6. 1758, Bedroom, Thetford, UK

Then David gave ME a card! After all, it IS my half-birthday!!!

7. 1802, Bedroom, Thetford, UK

My mom sent US a card... for the 4th of July. Wonder where my 1/2 birthday card is!?! God Bless the USA...and you know what? God Bless the IRS too... our tax refund checks were in our 4th of July card!

8. 1905, Kitchen Thetford, UK

Even though I'd had pulled pork in the crock pot all day, David insisted that we have the Coco's for dinner tonight! We learned that while I need David for things like moving furniture and getting rid of bugs, he needs me just as much for making rice. Poor guy messed up the Minute Rice!

9. 1909, Kitchen, Thetford, UK

Since I let David choose the dinner menu on MY half-birthday, I was in charge of dessert. I assembled Banana Boats while David salivated over the idea of our favorite Okinawan fast-food.

10. 1915, Kitchen, Thetford, UK

I know I'm making it seem like David is the only one who loves Coco's Curry...but that's really not an accurate representation of what was going on here tonight. We leaned in to smell the curry and HUGE smiles came across both of our faces!

11. 1944, Kitchen, Thetford, UK

Who has to wash dishes on her half-birthday??? I didn't have to do them all, David did all of the other ones, I just rinsed our dinner plates so we could eat dessert off of them.

12. 1946, Kitchen, Thetford, UK

David's first ever Banana Boat. I don't know why we haven't had them before, they're one of my favorite treats... we had them out of the oven tonight, and they were ooey, gooey and delicious but they're much much better cooked in a campfire!

Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to check out the ones I didn't get to post on time-- May-12 of 12 in Morocco &  June--12 of 12 in Ireland!

12 of 12 (June)--Ireland

Hmm, well... I need to come back and post pictures from days 3-5 of our Ireland trip! But first I have to go back to day 1 of the trip, because it was the 12th...and I need to post a 12 of 12!!

0. I wish I would've gotten a photo of the clock as we pulled out of the driveway...at 0330!
1. 0815, Killarney Guest House, Cork City, Ireland

we arrived at our b&b bright & early and were served tea, coffee & Irish soda bread. It was all very yummy. I drank an entire pot of tea in under 30 minutes. I couldn't help myself... they had sugar cubes!

2. 0953, Courthouse, Cork City, Ireland

I'm still trying to figure this one out... a faucet on the outer wall of the courthouse urging those who use the faucet (for what?) to keep the pavement dry. We were out walking around in search of shampoo & soap since we didn't think to get any 3 oz. or less bottles before flying with hand luggage only!

3. 1050, Killarney Guest House, Cork City, Ireland

We weren't sure when Lisa and Joe would arrive, and we were exhausted! I was content to fall asleep sitting up, but David decided to pull off his shoes & make himself comfortable on the couch in the lounge. This behaviour encouraged the people at the b&b to have our room ready early.

4. 1526, Cork City, Ireland

Lisa & Joe arrived & woke us up from our nap (in our room, not in the lounge), we went out for lunch (David chose a Mexican restaurant), and then we walked around Cork City for a little bit.

5. 1531, Cork City, Ireland

We're getting ready to take a look at the Holy Trinity Church.

6. 1534, Holy Trinity Church, Cork City, Ireland

(At least I *think* it's the Holy Trinity Church... the signs were a little confusing)  Ever since we went to Edinburgh Castle, I always notice when ceilings resemble the bottoms of boats. Speaking of boats...

7. 1551, Lapps Quay, Cork City, Ireland

Our next stop was the end of the Ocean to City Race and Maritime Festival.

8. 1729, Fitzgerald Park, Cork City, Ireland

Not far from our b&b, there was another festival going on... here's a guy who juggled fire and got a bunch of people disco dancing. He was either Canadian or American.

9. 1745, Fitzgerald Park, Cork City, Ireland

Joe had to use the bathroom and there was a LOOOOOOONG line for the 3 port-a-potties there. David went off in search of pretty pictures while we waited for Joe.

10. 1809, Fitzgerald Park, Cork City, Ireland

Probably the next best thing to the World Cup. Or maybe the next to next to next to next best thing.

11. 1815, Fitzgerald Park, Cork City, Ireland

This guy wins the prize for the creepiest street performer!

12. 1916, Bob Fox's, Cork City, Ireland

We found a place where David could see & hear the World Cup USA vs England game AND have his very first Guinness.

Ireland, Day 2- Ring of Kerry

Our 2nd day in Ireland was spent touring the "Highlights of Kenmare & Killarney". Most of the tour consisted of the views from the bus windows as we rode around the "Ring of Kerry". Fortunately, we were the first 4 in line and we all got front seats on the bus! The views were green, hilly and full of sheep and cows... it was *just* what I hoped Ireland would be!

The bus driver dropped us off in the quaint little town of Kenmare to have coffee, but we opted to check out the shops instead.

 We took a photo-stop at "Ladies' View," a place where Queen Victoria thought the view was so amazing that she summoned to her ladies-in-waiting to check it out. QV knew her stuff... it was a beautiful view of the Killarney Lakes & mountains!

 Our next stop was Killarney National Park, where we had a view of one of the three Killarney Lakes. The park was very nice! Pretty flowers, big trees, nice paths, etc. And of course, beautiful views of County Kerry.

Muckross House is found within Killarney National Park. Distant relatives of Queen Victoria lived here at one time, but they went totally broke preparing to host Her Majesty and lost their house. It eventually ended up being a wedding gift, before it and its grounds were turned into a National Park. We decided not to pay the admission fee to go inside because we'd already seen the interior on Rick Steves'. And because I feel that if you've seen the inside of one Victorian-era estate house, you've seen them all. Unless you are into that sort of thing. I'm not. And I'm pretty sure that David's not either! :)

David enjoyed exploring the grounds at the park! I have no idea how he managed to get up this huge tree!

Muckross Traditional Farms are also on the park grounds. We paid admission for this, because I was really hoping to feed a baby cow with a bottle or shear a sheep, neither of which happened. Nevertheless, it was an interesting place to walk through.

There were recreated cottages and farms from the early 18-1900s across different "income brackets" The cottages were super-cute, their fireplaces were going and guides were warming bread for us to eat on our way through.

The guides kept telling us to watch our heads on the way through the cottages, but I didn't see the point! More proof that I'm not short, I'm just old fashioned!

Even though I didn't get to shear any sheep or bottle-feed any baby cows, (we did see horses, cows, geese, a HUGE pig, a goat, and sheep... just didn't touch them or milk them) I was thrilled to spend lots of time petting this sweet kitty. I wonder why!?! Doesn't she look familiar??

We headed to the town of.... I don't remember! Killarney, maybe! And had lunch before heading back to Cork City for the night.